Nov. 19, 2007
Clinton's Skimpy Executive Résumé
National Review Online: Democratic Candidate Is Relatively Ill-Equipped For The Presidency
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Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, participates in a "Presidential Forum on Global Warming and America's Energy Future," in Los Angeles on Saturday, Nov. 17, 2007 (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
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Clinton Resilient At Debate
Sen. Hillary Clinton addressed many criticisms against her during a Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas. As Jim Axelrod reports, Clinton may have gained the upper hand.
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Stumbles On The Campaign Trail
Vaughn Ververs, Sr. Political Editor for CBSNews.com, discusses Hillary Clinton's stumbles along the campaign trail and what it means for her fellow democratic presidential hopefuls.
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Clinton On Planted Question
"CBS News Raw": Speaking to reporters in Iowa, Hillary Clinton addresses reports of a planted question at an earlier campaign stop in the state. "It will certainly not be tolerated," says Clinton.
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Photo Essay
Hillary Clinton
A look at a life and career full of firsts.
The Yellow-billed Oxpecker stands atop the mighty rhinoceros, gobbling ticks and chirping loudly when danger looms. This tiny bird would make a perfect mascot for Senator Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid. Akin to that creature, the New York Democrat leaves tiny footprints and has spent more than three decades riding aboard her outsized, accomplished husband, William Jefferson Clinton.
And, like the Oxpecker, Hillary Clinton is remarkably unprepared for the presidency. Beyond helping to secure post-September 11 recovery funds for Gotham, her legislative achievements are rather slight. Lighter yet is her executive experience, which is measurable in grams.
While Clinton has been an outspoken liberal activist since the 1960s, she never has run a business, a city, a state, or a Cabinet department. She was a partner at Little Rock’s Rose Law Firm, but did not administer it. Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families aside, she headed none of the non-profits whose boards her website says she joined.
While she conducted President Clinton’s health reform task force in 1993, the plan it concocted in secret collapsed in public. This 1,368-page prescription for government medicine quietly vanished, sparing a Democratic Congress the embarrassment of euthanizing it.
Since her 2000 election, Clinton never has chaired a Senate committee. However, she does lead the Senate Superfund and Environmental Health Subcommittee. As its website explains, the panel oversees “recycling, Federal facilities and interstate waste.”
Clinton has presided over something. She commanded the Wellesley College Republicans in 1965, and then became student-government president.
Despite repeated requests, Clinton’s campaign did not identify the executive experiences that supposedly merit her presidency.
Conversely, Clinton’s Democratic rivals display relevant résumés.
Bill Richardson was elected New Mexico’s governor in 2002. He handles a $13.7 billion budget, guides 20,816 state workers, and serves 1.9 million constituents. He was a U.S. House member between 1982 and 1996. He also gained valuable global expertise as United Nations ambassador from 1996 to 1998. Under Presidents Clinton and G.W. Bush, Richardson has negotiated nuclear issues with North Korean generals and helped free American citizens, soldiers, and dissidents from Cuba, Iraq, and Sudan. As Energy secretary from 1998 to 2000, Richardson addressed Arab-oil dependency and nuclear non-proliferation, and maintained America’s atomic arsenal.
First elected in 1972, Delaware’s Joseph Biden chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and also directed it between 2001 and 2003.
Connecticut’s Chris Dodd, elected U.S. representative in 1974 and senator in 1980, chairs the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee.
Even far-Left eccentric Rep. Dennis Kucinich was Cleveland, Ohio’s one-term mayor, years before his 1996 House win.
Elected in 2004, former Harvard Law Review president Barack Obama’s credentials are limited. Nonetheless, the Illinois senator is 2008’s “fresh face” - a phrase rarely in the same sentence with Hillary Clinton.
Clinton’s Republican competitors offer considerable executive dexterity: Rudolph W. Giuliani was mayor of New York, America’s largest city, with 8 million people. Between 1994 and 2002, he managed budgets as high as $40 billion and as many as 222,836 employees, a payroll surpassed only by Uncle Sam’s and California’s. As U.S. attorney, Giuliani supervised 130 prosecutors and some 200 support staffers between 1983 and 1989. In 2002, he launched Giuliani Partners, a security consultancy that reportedly earned tens of millions in revenues.
Mitt Romney founded Bain Capital, a prosperous enterprise, before becoming Massachusetts’ one-term governor in 2002. His final $36 billion budget funded 43,979 personnel who aided 6.4 million citizens.
Mike Huckabee was Arkansas’s governor between 1996 and 2006. His final, $15.6 billion budget financed 29,151 staffers who covered 2.8 million Arkansans.
Arizona Senator John McCain was a decorated Navy pilot and Vietnam-era POW before his 1982 U.S. House victory. He was elected senator in 1986 and has chaired the committees on Commerce and Indian Affairs.
To Clinton’s credit, she represented America as First Lady in 82 countries, perhaps her most pertinent duty. This may qualify her for secretary of State, a position she could execute with energy and discipline.
However, facing a $2.9 trillion federal budget and 5,120,688 civilian and military employees, Hillary Clinton is ill-equipped to become president of the United States, commander-in-chief of the U.S. armed forces, and leader of the free world. Her executive experience is lighter than a fistful of feathers.
By Deroy Murdock
Reprinted with permission from National Review Online.




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See all 70 CommentsYou know the NRO is smoking crack again when they come up with this article and expect to be taken seriously!!
Or more telling still, they are beyond trying to find reasonable or understandable arguments against the democrats. They are running totally scared and coming up the ever more stupid arguments.
Murdock, kind of pathetic reporting...oops, I used the R word when describing what you pretend to do.
Geffen so aptly said about her and Bill: "Everybody in politics lies, but they do it with such ease, it%u2019s troubling". And when she isn''t lying, she''s flip-flopping more than a traffic signal - that is, if she didn''t evade the question in the first place. I''d even settle for Obama at this point over her.
Stop it you meanies.
So what if she is double-talking and two-faced and has a platform that consists of: Show-Me-The-Money, Say-Whatever-They-Want-To-Hear, Continue-The-Neocon-Wars, Sell-The-Lincoln-Bedroom, and I-Want-A-New-Pair-Of-Hsu''s. So what if there are no depths of depravity to which this moneywhor''e won''t go, including staging questions at public events. So what if she is Bush-Lite on the neocon wars and many other critical issues. So what is she is an advocate for the most un-American piece of legislation ever enacted, the so-called "Patriot" Act, which shows clearly that she will be as lawless, secretive and anti Bill of Rights as DickNBush.
She is woman - let her roar!
HILLARY IS INEVITABLE - DON''T FIGHT IT -HILLARY IS INEVITABLE - DON''T FIGHT IT -HILLARY IS INEVITABLE - DON''T FIGHT IT -HILLARY IS INEVITABLE - DON''T FIGHT IT -HILLARY IS INEVITABLE - DON''T FIGHT IT -HILLARY IS INEVITABLE - DON''T FIGHT IT -HILLARY IS INEVITABLE - DON''T FIGHT IT -HILLARY IS INEVITABLE - DON''T FIGHT IT -HILLARY IS INEVITABLE - DON''T FIGHT IT -HILLARY IS INEVITABLE - DON''T FIGHT IT -HILLARY IS INEVITABLE - DON''T FIGHT IT -HILLARY IS INEVITABLE - DON''T FIGHT IT -HILLARY IS INEVITABLE - DON''T FIGHT IT -HILLARY IS INEVITABLE - DON''T FIGHT IT
Idiot.
The NRO, who totally PIMPED Bush and his moronic foreign policies at every chance they could, have the audacity to impugn anyone''s credentials? Could you idiots look any more desperate?
Lordy, lordy these people are something else !
Hillary is an intelligent, articulate woman (and a very good politician) but never in her life could she claim, "the buck stops here". Not only is she not "the most qualified non-incumbent ever", she is not even minimally qualified. Since when does watching your husband do something count as experience? If so, wouldn''t this make Laura Bush as qualified as Hillary?
Hillary is the one who would need "on the job training" as an executive leader, not Obama.
She might do better than Bush, but so would my cat. What makes her the "most qualified" candidate?
Hillary is an intelligent, articulate woman (and a very good politician) but never in her life could she claim, "the buck stops here". Not only is she not "the most qualified non-incumbent ever", she is not even minimally qualified. Since when does watching your husband do something count as experience? If so, wouldn''t this make Laura Bush as qualified as Hillary?
Hillary is the one who would need "on the job training" as an executive leader, not Obama.
She might do better than Bush, but so would my cat. What makes her the "most qualified" candidate?
Hilary has more experience at everything in her little finger than the whole Bush family has combined.
Posted by logicanada at 08:06 PM : Nov 19, 2007
She not running against a Bush, kunnuck. She''s running against people with credentials other than their surname.....
Since when is $98,500 per year middle class? A dual income family at that rate would be considered, by her, middle class making $198,000 per year. Hilary obviously has spent too much time around middle class Manhattans.
Since she does not want to "overstress" these "middle class" Americans (and everyone else making more money than this all the way up to Bill Gates) with a tax increase, she instead proposes to raise the eligibility age for the rest of us "real" middle class baby boomers by half a decade at a time when we probably only have half to one and a half decades left in our lives. And to think I%u2019ve been paying into this pot with money taken from my paycheck every week of my working life.
Frankly this is something I would expect from Bush.
Posted by IMNHO
I heard Lincoln surrounded himself with people who impressed him while disagreeing with him.
I guess he had a real distrust for Yes-Men. And enough guts to seek honest advice.
Posted by mrmazerati at 08:53 PM : Nov 19, 2007
You obviously don''t know the definition of the word "leader".
Everyone is most certainly not a leader.
I do not question that Hillary Clinton (along with others) has that ability. If the Bush/Cheney group had any executive ability, it certainly didn''t evidence itself in their list of incompetencies, and clearly their ability to understand and honor the constitution was lacking to the point of endangering our democracy.
Murdock was named runner-up to Keith Olbermann''s "Worst Person in the World" on MSNBC''s Countdown with Keith Olbermann after writing an article titled "Three Cheers for Waterboarding", in which he called waterboarding "something of which every American should be proud."
Murdock himself is g a y. He also opposes the War on Drugs. Murdock is also a Media Fellow with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He was a communications consultant with Forbes 2000, the White House bid of publisher Steve Forbes.
Though clearly uncomfortable, waterboarding loosens lips without causing permanent physical injuries (and unlikely even temporary ones). If terrorists suffer long-term nightmares about waterboarding, better that than more Americans crying themselves to sleep after their loved ones have been shredded by bombs or baked in skyscrapers.
In short, there is nothing %u201Crepugnant%u201D about waterboarding.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=23199
It''s clear he has no problems with it.
Posted by mrmazerati at 11:38 PM : Nov 19, 2007
What you fail to perceive is the difference in being "eligible" and being "qualified".
Re-read the posts, Squigly! Primarily, they are comments (on both sides) about the relative importance of "executive experience".
I maintain that ANYONE that can lead a successful campaign to be a nominee of a major party demonstrates a more-than-sufficient degree of executive ability.
That aside (because it begs the question), how important is a background as an executive?. Bush had it, but he essentially failed at it, just as he failed in his incompetent presidency. And, truth-be-told, Bush''s "experience" wasn''t something he earned. It was bought with Prescott Bush''s money.
And that money was earned in Prescott''s successful business dealings with the Nazi''s in the ''30s. The immorality of those ventures (finally outlawed by FDR in late ''41) has never been addressed by his heirs, causing one to wonder to what extent his principles were passed on to the son and grandsons. " . . the sins of the father . ."?
Well, since I write for a living, it''s my job to know the difference. And qualified still works as a correct description. The Princeton dictionary describes qualified as "meeting the proper standards and requirements and training for an office or position or task." For this particular argument, there is only one document that dictates what those standards are; the U.S. Constitution. I am still correct.
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Posted by squidly8 at 06:51 AM : Nov 20, 2007
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ROFLMAO This from someone who told us that Bush WAS qualified and who blames ALL the screw ups of the Bush Administration of "Liberal''s"! ROFLMAO Look the lady was THERE, hands on, being a very close advisor and according to some of you fascist and non elected Co President. Now you freaks want to say she''s not qualified. ROFLMAO She already knows the vast majority of the leaders of the world, some by their first name, she knows who has what and what their motives are, She can walk right in to the job, day one, and bring back into the fold BADLY needed Allies AND she was on the front lines in fighting our OWN Religious Terrorist. Add to that the fact that she will have a built in advisor the likes of which NONE of the people on the Fascist side have and you''ve got this nation on the verge of making history!! But what''s the use trying to talk to someone who thinks anything written by the NRO is dead on!! ROFLMAO Sieg Heil Bush
What a President has to do is be able to lead and have a vision of a better America. A President then needs to appoint people of integrity and honesty to run the departments. This is where Bush has failed miserably.
Whether you think Hillary or someone else would do this better is what this election is really about. This Hillary bash is a Repub smokescreen. I really like the Demo canadidates so far - there are different opinions and personalities. The Repub candidates are just a bunch of Bush bobble-heads.
Posted by afmca at 09:58 AM : Nov 20, 2007
All you''re doing is Rep'' bashing, isn''t that a little hypocritical?
Hilary lost my vote during the Las Vegas debate when she said that she would not support the idea of raising the $98,500 per person income limit to be taxed for Social Security. Barack Obama is promoting this as a solution for the Social Security Crises. The idea is to extend the 6.2% FICA tax to ALL gross income instead of just the first $98,500, this solution would raise trillions for Social Security by taxing people who can afford it.
We could also remove the ceiling on the monthly retirement check so millionaires would get retirement payments to match their contributions like the rest of us IF , like the rest of us, they are fortunate enough to live that long.
More...
Hilary said she would not support this solution because it would hurt the middleclass. MIDDLECLASS!!!
Since when is $98,500 per year middleclass? A dual income family at that rate would be considered, by her, middle class making $198,000 per year. Hilary obviously has spent too much time around middle class Manhattans.
Since she does not want to "overstress" these "middleclass" Americans (and everyone else making more money than this all the way up to Bill Gates) with a tax increase, she instead proposes to raise the eligibility age for retirement benefits for the rest of us middleclass baby boomers by half a decade at a time when we probably only have half to one and a half decades left in our lives. And to think I%u2019ve been paying into this pot with money taken from my paycheck every week of my entire working life.
Frankly this %u201CLet them eat Cake%u201D attitude of Hilary%u2019s is something I would expect from Bush.
Thank you Barack Obama, for realizing that the average American is tired of working hard for the heavily lobbied plight of the wealthy.
In addition to her two terms as a US senator, Hillary spent 8 years as a virtual apprentice to Bill Clinton%u2019s two-term presidency and will undoubtedly, if elected, be advised by the ex-president himself on a daily basis.
She has learned from the many good things from those years as well as some of the bad.
NONE of the other candidates have that much experience for the job as president of the United States.
By the same reasoning, Laura Bush would certainly have learned many things NOT to do if she were elected president.
That being said I would feel much more comfortable voting for John Edwards (I believe Hillary Clinton is far too right-leaning at this time), because we need a DRAMATIC shift in direction to begin to undo the damage caused by the present administration.
We''re looking at an administration that wrote the book on the subject! Or, an even better example would be the self-appointed Ground Zero Hero. His political posturings are bad enough (a "virtual fence" at the border?), but his personal life established a new threshold for the lowest standard of morality.
Hypocrisy? Try Cheney, swearing to uphold the constitution, then directing his proto-fascist staff to do the opposite.
Hypocrisy? It takes an unbelievable amount of hubris for any poster on the right to even use the word!
Hillary Clinton can do that as well as anyone. George Bush has done it just fine. It may not make you popular, but it is not hard to do.
Only gullible people think they are electing a president who will obey the mandate of the people. The chief executive executes the will of those who have power and money.
Yes, I sound cynical, but the truth isn''t always warm and fuzzy and happily ever after now is it?
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Posted by jowand at 10:03 AM : Nov 20, 2007
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We already KNOW the Republican''s can''t lead, we have the results right in front of us, no need to ask anyone. This Nazi Rag can''t have it both ways either. While she was in the White House they ran hate piece after hate piece about her, one after the other, about how she had abandoned the "traditional" First Lady position in favor of a Co President role. NOW these freaks, who by the way supported Sir Lies-A-Lot... TWICE, want to tell us to vote for the same failures we''ve seen for 6 years. We watched as the Republican''s in congress sat on their hands, approved the WORST possible heads of departments and just keep buying the "Stay the Course" garbage, all the while dividing this nation as it''s never been divided before... NOPE, that''s called HYPOCRATIC folks... PURE, Toe Tappin, Senator Wide Stance, HYPOCRATIC!! Sieg Heil Bush.
However, facing a $2.9 trillion federal budget and 5,120,688 civilian and military employees, Hillary Clinton is ill-equipped to become president of the United States, commander-in-chief of the U.S. armed forces, and leader of the free world. Her executive experience is lighter than a fistful of feathers.
Let us not forget that all the national debt, the war in Iraq and everything mentioned above has been managed with the watchful oversight of the biggest blundering president the US has know since President James Buchanan. Judging from the last seven years, experience doesn''t count for much when the goal is success.
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